Women on the Verge of a Nervous Breakdown

Before there was the MeToo movement, there was Pedro Almodovar.

Way back in the dark ages of 1988, Almodovar was making movies about women and the ways in which their lives are shaped by men. It took me forever to get around to watching this film, one of the first to bring Almodovar some fame among American audiences, primarily because it was nominated for the 1988 Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film. It's a hoot, a modern refashioning of the screwball comedies of the 1930s. None of it is meant to be taken very seriously by the audience, yet Almodovar takes his own characters seriously, which makes all the difference between this being a toss off movie to be instantly forgotten and one that resonates because, despite all the goofiness, it's about real people who we come to care about.

I wouldn't call myself necessarily an Almodovar fan. I've liked some of his movies and disliked others. But I enjoyed this one quite a bit.

Grade: A